A teaser website was recently uncovered for a fourth Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game. However, the site, which featured a countdown to some sort of reveal on March 21, has since been confirmed as a fake.
In addition to featuring some Call of Duty-esque visuals and sounds, the website's source code specifically mentioned Modern Warfare 4, as well as studios such as Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Neversoft, all of which are developers for the franchise. However, users soon discovered that ownership of the domain had been registered to an individual, not a company, using a regular gmail account. Large company's will typically use a third-party to handle the website registration, but almost never a single individual.
An Activision representative confirmed the website was a hoax last night. Why this individual went to such lengths to pass off a fake is a mystery.
While the teaser is a fraud, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is in fact in development. A new Call of Duty game set for a Q4 2013 release window was confirmed during an Activision earnings call last month. However, it is unlikely that it will be released for next-gen consoles.
Additionally, the voice actor for Captain Price, Billy Murray, confirmed he was set to record new dialogue tracks for Modern Warfare 4 last year.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 would be the ninth game in the series, which began in 2003, and the fourth game in the "Modern Warfare" story arc. If Captain Price is returning as a character, one would imagine that this new installment will be a direct continuation of the story set up in the original trilogy.
As the next installment in the "core" series, it will likely be developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, and will probably see a renewed push by Activision for their Call of Duty Elite service.